The husband could not be a secondary name on the account because of his age. Only a few companies, such a Nationwide and Barclaycard, perform a “pre-check” to see whether you will meet their requirements before processing a full application and sending the data to an external referencing agency.A major reason for a rejection is incorrect data on your credit file.Some customers are not even lucky enough to have their application properly considered.This is because the formulas used are not flexible, and a computerised assessment process – used to cut costs – rejects applicants outright.The applicants’ details, including credit scores obtained from referencing agencies such as Experian, Equifax and Call Credit, are fed into the formula to produce a “yes” or “no”.Will Becker, director of comparison website Totally Money, said more than 70pc of people considered “good” credit risks were now turned down for the best cards, following a severe tightening of lending criteria since the financial crisis.

Make sure your file is completely accurate and get a rough idea of whether you will be accepted by running a “soft search” on a comparison site such as uk, Totally or before you apply for a card.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s Bank said: “When the customer provided further information regarding his property portfolio, we were able to reassess our decision.” Another reader, a woman aged 74, fell foul of lenders’ age restrictions.

Six years ago her husband suffered a stroke and she started running the household finances.

This can put a spanner in the works where, for instance, applicants have multiple sources of income.

Graham Donald of Pancredit, a firm that sells decision-making software to banks, told The Sunday Telegraph that each lender was targeting a “niche”.

Comments:

This scandal, which took years to resolve (if such a thing is every truly resolved in a victim's mind), blew the lid off of what sort of odds she was facing throughout her career as a woman who more than anything was driven to be taken seriously and respected in a male-dominated profession.